The Modern Scholar: From Troy to Constantinople: The Cities and Societies of Ancient Turkey

From time immemorial, the region of modern-day Turkey has served as a crossroads between east and west. In this illuminating course, Professor Jennifer Tobin leads a compelling discussion of "Anatolia" from early archaeological sites and the Trojan War up through the Greeks, Persians, Alexander the Great, and the Romans. A land of immense cultural significance, Ancient Turkey has housed an amazing array of peoples - the study of whom shines light on the modern world.

Turkey: What Everyone Needs to Know

Turkey occupies a strategic position in today's world: the only predominantly Muslim nation to be a member of NATO and an ally of Israel, it straddles both Europe and Asia. Turkey is the link between Islam and Western democracy, between Europe and the Middle East. In this concise introduction, Andrew Finkel, who has spent twenty years in Turkey writing about the country for publications such as The Economist and Time magazine, unravels Turkey's complexities.

The Modern Scholar: Empire of Gold: A History of the Byzantine Empire

In this course, Thomas F. Madden offers a history of the culture that developed out of the ancient Roman Empire throughout the Middle Ages. The story begins at the end of the Roman Empire in the third century AD and continues over the next 1000 years. Professor Madden leads a discussion covering the aftermath and influence of this extraordinary empire. Europeans now saw a world in which nothing stood between them as the last remnant of free Christendom and the ever-growing powers of Islam.

Istanbul: Memories and the City

A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world’s great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy - or hüzün - that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire. Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges’ Buenos Aires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.

Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul

At midnight, December 31, 1925, citizens of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic celebrated the New Year. For the first time ever, they had agreed to use a nationally unified calendar and clock. Yet in Istanbul - an ancient crossroads and Turkey's largest city - people were looking toward an uncertain future. Never purely Turkish, Istanbul was home to generations of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as Muslims.

Bliss

In rural Turkey, Meryem is raped by her uncle. Outcast for shaming her family, she is expected to kill herself. Her commando cousin instead tells her he will take her to Istanbul. By chance, they meet Irfan, a celebrity professor who has left his wife, and the three embark on a journey that shows what unexpected things can happen in the space between wounded people.

Each lesson in Turkish Phase 1, Units 1-5 provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation, and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Each lesson contains practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons.

The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East

In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict.

Birds Without Wings

Birds Without Wings is the story of a small town in Anatolia in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire told in the richly varied voices of the men and women (Armenians, Christians, and Muslims) whose lives are intertwined and rooted there: Iskander, the potter and local fount of wisdom; Philotei, the Christian girl of legendary beauty, courted almost from infancy by Ibrahim the goatherd, a great love that culminates in tragedy and madness; and many more.

The Modern Scholar: Heaven or Heresy: A History of the Inquisition

With a scholarly eye and infectious enthusiasm, widely published author and noted expert on pre-modern European history Thomas Madden imparts an understanding of the Spanish and Roman Inquisitions while dispelling popular myths associated with the subject.

The Ottoman Age of Exploration

In 1517, the Ottoman Sultan Selim "the Grim" conquered Egypt and brought his empire for the first time in history into direct contact with the trading world of the Indian Ocean. During the decades that followed, the Ottomans became progressively more engaged in the affairs of this vast and previously unfamiliar region, eventually to the point of launching a systematic ideological, military and commercial challenge to the Portuguese Empire, their main rival for control of the lucrative trade routes of maritime Asia.

The Modern Scholar: Archaeology and the Iliad: The Trojan War in Homer and History

The Trojan War, captured forever in Homer's epic poem the Iliad, resonates to the present day in the popular imagination. But did Troy actually exist? And if so, where is it located? Was the Trojan War actually fought? And why? In this course, professor Eric H. Cline examines the history of Troy and delves into the archaeological discoveries that help to answer the questions above. Through an incisive analysis of known data, Professor Cline provides a fuller, richer understanding of this historic clash.

The World of Byzantium

Byzantium is too-often considered merely the "eastern rump" of the old Roman Empire, a curious and even unsettling mix of the classical and medieval. Yet it was, according to Professor Harl, "without a doubt the greatest state in Christendom through much of the Middle Ages," and well worth our attention as a way to widen our perspective on everything from the decline of imperial Rome to the rise of the Renaissance.

The Modern Scholar: The Medieval World I: Kingdoms, Empires, and War

This all-encompassing investigation of a highly influential time period includes the major events of the era and informative discussion of empire, papacy, the Crusades, and the fall of Constantinople. During the course of these lectures, Professor Madden also addresses the rise of Islam, reform movements, and schisms in the church. In so doing, Professor Madden underscores the significance and grand scale of an age that continues to hold an undeniable fascination for people today.

The Modern Scholar: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Esteemed professor Jennifer Tobin leads a compelling series of lectures on the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Examining the historical and social context of each wonder, Tobin answers such questions as "Why was it built?" and "What can it tell us about the people who built it?" From the Great Pyramid at Giza to the Colossus of Rhodes and the Pharos of Alexandria, the course provides a 360-degree view of these enduring marvels of human achievement.

Snow

Following years of lonely political exile in Western Europe, Ka, a middle-aged poet, returns to Istanbul to attend his mother's funeral. Only partly recognizing this place of his cultured, middle-class youth, he is even more disoriented by news of strange events in the wider country: a wave of suicides among girls forbidden to wear their head scarves at school.

The Modern Scholar: God Wills It!: Understanding the Crusades

The story of the many crusades are filled with an unremitting passion to keep or return the home of Christianity to Christians. It is also filled with death, destruction, disorder, greed, avarice, and self-interest on all sides. Much of what occurred during the Crusades has come down to us today in the form of continued suspicion among religious ideologies - not only between Christians and Muslims, but also internally among Christian sects and, to some degree, among Muslim sects.

My Name Is Red

At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of 16th-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers.

The Modern Scholar: The Second Oldest Profession, Part 1: A World History of Espionage

Professor Jeffrey Burds of Northeastern University delves into the history of espionage in this eye-opening lecture series. The course opens with espionage activity in the ancient world and the Roman Empire and continues with the American Revolution, Age of Napoleon, and American Civil War. Throughout this compelling discussion it becomes evident that spying is not only a never-ending source of fascination but also a major contributor to world history and the development of nations.

The Modern Scholar: History of Ancient Greece

In this series of lectures, professor Eric H. Cline delves into the history of ancient Greece, frequently considered to be the founding nation of democracy in Western civilization. Ancient Greece lives on in modern culture, evidenced by an ever-present fascination with the tales of Homer, Greek drama, and the stories associated with Greek mythology. In the rise of Sparta and Athens, people today find a wealth of material for understanding not only ancient Greece, but the modern world.

Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization

In AD 476 the Roman Empire fell - or rather, its western half did. Its eastern half, which would come to be known as the Byzantine Empire, would endure and often flourish for another 11 centuries. Though its capital would move to Constantinople, its citizens referred to themselves as Roman for the entire duration of the empire's existence.

The Museum of Innocence

Kemal, scion of one of the city's wealthiest families, is about to become engaged to Sibel, daughter of another prominent family, when he encounters Füsun, a beautiful shopgirl and a distant relation. Once the long-lost cousins violate the code of virginity, a rift begins to open between Kemal and the world of the Westernized Istanbul bourgeosie - a world, as he lovingly describes it, with opulent parties and clubs, society gossip, picnics, and mansions on the Bosphorus, infused with the melancholy of decay.

The Modern Scholar: The Grandeur That Was Rome: Roman Art and Archaeology

Common perceptions of Ancient Rome are plentiful, whether they take the form of crazy emperors hosting lavish feasts, scenes of chariot races and gladiatorial combat, or processions of conquering armies. But that is only half the story.

Publisher's Summary

From time immemorial, the region of modern-day Turkey has served as a crossroads between east and west. In this illuminating course, Professor Jennifer Tobin leads a compelling discussion of "Anatolia" from early archaeological sites and the Trojan War up through the Greeks, Persians, Alexander the Great, and the Romans. A land of immense cultural significance, Ancient Turkey has housed an amazing array of peoples - the study of whom shines light on the modern world.

I enjoyed this lecture series very much. I have traveled a great deal all over Turkey and visited the places and sites discussed in these lectures. I have read many other books focused on myths, history and travel related to Turkey. I have also listened to a jumble of tour guide stories and highlights during site visits. These lectures were a pleasure because they fleshed out and deepened my understanding of the place through time. Turkey is a rich treasure trove to explore in person or in reading. This series offers a firm footing from which to explore and begin to understand a wonderfully complex subject. Recommended if you enjoy history through a lecture format. The accompanying PDF is helpful with maps and photos as well.

Another fascinating presentation by Professor Tobin. This time she focusses on just one small part of the ancient world, Anatolia, or what we nowadays call Turkey. But the number of different peoples who lived in this bit of land makes it an amazing trip through time. Did you know that people were building temples in 11,000 BC, even before we started farming or living in villages, let alone cities? Do you know who invented money? Did you know that America's federal system is based partly on the government of a small nation in southern Turkey that was established before Christ? Enough of the spoilers, hear it for yourself. Suffice it to say that Professor Tobin never loses sight of the fact that she is talking about people, not just buildings. And the PDF document you get with the program enables you to see the pictures and check the spelling of those funny names.

Treat this as a Lecture series and a Guide. What I did like was the number of www. sites as well as books for further reading. The pdf was great, thanks. The area covered is huge, the time span great, so I for one see this series of lectures as a suggested 'road map'. Today this whole area is still a hotbed. In terms of Archeology there is still so much being uncovered and more questions being asked. I have hardly started going through the suggested readings. So my rating is a little premature. I expect I will be dipping into this series of lectures for a while to come.

This book was decent, and to an extent informative. The title is a little bit misleading in that the vast preponderance of the information was related to ancient Anatolia, only the final ten minutes of the book was related to Constantinople. The other shortcoming in my opinion was the total lack of discussion on the critical role this area played in the early Christian Church.

The narration was good, although it is in the form of a lecture rather than a narration.

This professor presents seriously questionable interpretations without mentioning the fact that they are disputed. I can only remark on the first lecture, as this is an area I specialize in, but two major interpretations with serious flaws are given as if they are the mainstream view of the material.

The first being her notion that the impetus to sedentism was related to communal worship rather than the pressures of changing climate and related distribution of food plants and animals. This misrepresents the issues and arguments, fails to mention adaptation to climate change, and doesn't even address the possibility that the sharing of food plant seeds that may have occurred at Gobekli Tepe could easily have been a big contributor to the development of domesticated crops. In other words, the ability to convert to an agricultural economy began as an incidental side effect of communal worship, whereas what she says implies that people formed sedentary communities specifically to worship in groups-in spite of the obvious fact that Gobekli Tepe was built and maintained purely by foragers who did not live year-round in the region!

There is no reason not to believe that communal religion existed well before agriculture. Since sedentism allows a small group of people to control the community by controlling access to luxury goods and trade, it is in sedentary communities where the evidence of hierarchy begins to be visible, obviously including religious professionals who might be buried with ornaments or possessions unavailable to the general population. But just because this is visible in sedentary cultures doesn't mean that religious professionals did not exist in mobile communities-only that their ability to be differentiated from others must have been less. In short, Schmitt is being fully reasonable (and Tobin, for mentioning the theory) by suggesting that organized religion pre-dated settled communities. BUT. This does not in any way mean that settled communities came about because of organized religion. In many ways it implies the exact opposite! That towns and the agriculture necessary to support them are not required for organized, communal religion to exist. And Gobekli Tepe is at the moment the world's outstanding example of this exact phenomenon.

My second argument is with Tobin's mention of a "Great Mother Goddess" in her discussion of Catal Huyuk as an entity (Tobin does admit that this goddess's existence is conjectural) that has a long history in Anatolia, presumably spanning cultures and large periods of time.

Now, it's one thing to say "The people of Catal Huyuk were farmers, and farmers are often concerned with fertility, and fertility is often also connected with the female body and childbirth, and one recurring image in the arts of Catal Huyuk is of the female form, sometimes emphasizing childbirth or reproductive characteristics". It is QUITE another thing to say that these female figures could be representations of a singular Great Mother Goddess of fertility and wild animals (but implying that this is actually about agricultural fertility) and that this singular entity crossed cultures and time frames throughout the geography and history of Anatolia.

Not to say that this isn't possible, but on the other hand it's all a fabrication and not supported by all the available evidence, either. And since this topic brushes up against some terribly unprofessional and insupportable theories about prehistoric religion that still crop up throughout popular literature about the period, it seems to me that representing the issue the way Tobin does is designed to give the listener an idea about Catal Huyuk that is not based upon good science, but smacks of revisionist feminist history. Any interested persons who then did a little internet digging or checked a book out of their local library would be likely to land on Mellaart or Gimbutas and have no background to think critically about what they were reading, coming away with an impression of prehistory worldwide that would be nothing short of pure fantasy. Ultimately the important thing to remember about these interpretations is that comparisons between cultures must be made very carefully indeed, and followed up with very good documentation, to be worthy of consideration. Any other approach is likely to produce blindness to the evidence that does NOT support the theory.

Given my two concerns with the first lecture, I do not recommend this series to the uninformed, basic listener who is simply curious about Anatolia. This is the person to whom the lectures are addressed, and this is the person who will not have access to information that rounds out what Tobin is saying. All sources tend to be biased in some direction or other, this is true. But I think this course does a poor job of presenting the material fairly.

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